The Return

The Return

2006PG-131h 26m
DVD

Overview

Details

After being plagued by horrific nightmares about the murder of a young woman she's never met, successful sales representative Joanna Mills sets out on a determined quest to pinpoint the source of her fears.

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Reviews

age 16+

Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this slow-moving, arty, somewhat abstract film, isn't likely to hold kids' attention (though many teens may want to see it because of star Sarah Michelle Gellar). Though trailers suggest that it's a horror movie, it's really more of an exploration of a trauma. It follows a young woman's struggle with violent, literally dark memories. These include a man's fatal assault on a woman, a car accident, and aggressive behavior by a creepy ex-boyfriend/co-worker. Violence (and one sex scene) tends to appear subjectively, which makes it hard to read. Characters are generally mean-spirited, depressed, and cryptic. Some drinking, a couple of jump scenes, menacing men chasing girls and women, and fairly mild language.

Sexual
Content

One scene shows sex as a flashback (blurry images, very close-up and inexplicit); one friendship involves a tender kiss but doesn't develop further because of the movie's focus on scary stuff.

Violence

Several jump scenes; a young girl is stalked; protagonist cuts herself with knife twice; a car accident is shown repeatedly (the last version is the most violent, showing the crash itself); repated, sometimes abstract-seeming, bloody body parts; repeated versions of the same assault/central murder (a man hits, drags, kicks, then knifes his femlae victim, with bloody results and screaming); after another car accident, the protagonist's face and chest are bloodied; climactic struggle involves hitting, kicking; protagonist stabs villain with big knife; rape is threatened twice (first time is cut off quickly by another man; second leads to woman's murder).

Language

Some ("god damn," "s--t" ).

Social
Behavior

Stereotypical villain (smalltown Texas local who's misogynist and brutal); the haunted protagonist receives little help from friends or family.

Consumerism

Coca-Cola sign in the background; Pepsi can.

Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol

Drinking in a bar; brief drunken aggression.

Age appropriate

Not an issue

Depends on your child and your family

Parents strongly cautioned

Not appropriate for kids of the age

This information for parents is provided by Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving kids' media lives.

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